Netanyahu to Palestinian Authority on Peace Talks: 'Peace with Israel or Pact with Hamas'

In an interview that aired Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained the justification for Israel calling off peace talks with the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to form a unity government with Hamas, which is considered by the Israel and the United States to be a terrorist group.

That pact according Netanyahu was cause for not continuing with any sort of peace talks for the time being.

“I think that what has happened is a great reverse for peace because we had hoped that the Palestinian Authority President Abbas would embrace the Jewish state, the idea of two nation states — a Palestinian one and a Jewish one. But instead he took a giant leap backward and embraced — made a pact with Hamas, a terror organization that calls for Israel’s destruction. He had a choice, peace with Israel or pact with the terrorist Hamas and he chose to make the pact with Hamas. So that’s the blow for peace and I hope he changes his mind. Until he does so, I think it’s very important that we have clarity as long as I’m prime minister of Israel, I will never negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by terrorist organizations committed to our destruction.”